Washington leads Cardinals past Vikings in soccer

Warren Washington made sure his Jacksonville soccer team didn’t need a rally this time to defeat rival White Oak on Tuesday night.

Chris Miller-Prep Sports Writer/The Daily News

Warren Washington made sure his Jacksonville soccer team didn’t need a rally this time to defeat rival White Oak on Tuesday night.

The senior forward scored a pair of first-half goals and added a couple of assists in the second half to lead the Cardinals past the Vikings 5-0 in a Coastal 3-A Conference match.

Washington scored Jacksonville’s first two goals to help the Cardinals defeat the Vikings for the second time this season and stay unbeaten against White Oak in 18 straight games, dating back to the 2005 season.

Jacksonville had to rally from one-goal deficit to defeat White Oak 2-1 on Sept. 19.

“We knew what was coming for us,” Washington said. “It was a close match the last time, but we knew if we came out here and played our game that it would be game, set, match.”

The victory kept defending state 3-A champion Jacksonville (13-3-1, 9-1) one game behind conference leading Swansboro (15-1-2, 9-0) with two league matches left. The Cardinals, sixth in the N.C. Soccer Coaches Association 3-A poll, visit 4-A New Hanover on Thursday in a nonconference game before playing host to Swansboro on Tuesday.

White Oak (10-8-1, 4-6) dropped its second consecutive match. The Vikings fell 1-0 at home to West Carteret on Monday.

“We are so injury-prone right now that we just have to focus on the ones (matches) that may help us in the long run,” White Oak coach Buddy Carroll said. “They (Cardinals) played a great game. We just were unable to stop that long ball they play.”

Washington first scored with 21:36 left in the first half after he played the ball from Alex Pino, ran past a defender and shot the ball from inside the 18-yard line.

“I was standing in front of the box and the next thing I knew was that I was going to turn on the defender instead of going out,” Washington said. “Once I got past one defender, it was 1v1 (with the goalkeeper).”

Washington then gave the Cardinals a 2-0 cushion about six minutes later.

He managed to break away from the rest of the field and delivered a running shot from inside the 18. The ball was deflected by White Oak goalkeeper Rene Perez, but it continues rolling toward the goal. Washington got around Perez and kicked it into the net for his second goal.

“It was on a counter attack,” Washington said. “I knew I could beat them with my speed so I took it. Once I beat one defender, I had to take on the keeper. I got a lucky deflection and I ran to the ball to make sure it was in.”

Washington’s two goals were all the scoring the Cardinals needed to win, but they added three goal to be safe.

Junior Tyler Moore made it 3-0 with 6:52 left in the first half after he played a short corner kick, worked the ball along the left sideline past a couple of defenders and found the goal.

Junior CJay Sparks then scored just 53 seconds into the second half off an assist from Washington. Pino added a goal with 21:54 left off another assist from Washington.

“Rene made some big saves tonight that kept them (Vikings) in the game early, but we did a better job tonight finishing our opportunities,” Jacksonville coach Dave Miller said. “We were able to finish.”

The Cardinals jumped on the Vikings early with solid ball possession and point-blank scoring chances early. However, Perez kept the game scoreless with a pair of saves in the first five minutes.

White Oak then had the momentum during the next 10 minutes. The Vikings were able to push the ball to the left flanks.

“We changed formations tonight and played with three in the back, which left the flanks exposed,” Miller said. “We just wanted to try something different because we are going to see teams pack it in. This gave us numbers going forward.”

Washington said his team wasn’t fazed by the Vikings’ run of possession.

“When they were passing the ball, we were just seeing what they were trying to do,” he said. “We wanted to see if we could counter attack off it.”

Despite the edge out in the flanks, however, the Vikings didn’t register a shot from inside the 18. They had three outside shots that were saved by Jacksonville goalie Joe Davis.

“We were able to swing the ball quicker, but we didn’t capitalize,” Carroll said. “When we possessed it a little bit, the quality opportunities just didn’t come.”

They certainly came for the Cardinals, who recorded their 11th game with at least three goals.

“We settled down and we controlled the game,” Miller said.

And the Cardinals never looked back, although Carroll was glad to see his team continue to play hard, despite its deficit.

“I wanted to see if they had the will to work hard and the will to fight throughout the whole game,” he said. “It shows character and it’s something we can continue to build on to help us later on.”